Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Like pop music, fashion went through a revolution in the 60s. The styles of the late fifties, the Chanel suit and the full skirt were still popular. By the middle of the 60s, the mini was in and short hair, in the geometric style of Vidal Sassoon, was the in look. By the end of the sixties, the look was long, flowing hair, hippy beads and kaftans.

Fashion now is imbued of the first half of the 60's. It was all about the glamour of American movies! Girls looked very grown up - It was the "Lady like look" that still remains, and Prada or Louis Vuitton recycled and reinvented. For men in the early sixties, the "Teddy Boy" style was still in vogue.

But how can we talked about the 60's without refered the mini skirt? This revolutionay iconic piece was the fashion phenomenon of the sixties. There is some debate over who invented the mini. Mary Quant's boutique, Bazaar, on the King's Road, Chelsea was one of the first places that sold them in 1965. French fashion designer, André Courrèges, also added mini skirts to his fashion collection in 1965.

In the sixties fashion's history we must also mencioned the Granny Takes a Trip, in London. Granny Takes a Trip was a boutique opened in February 1966 at 488 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, by Nigel Waymouth, his girlfriend Sheila Cohen and and former tailor John Pearse, and it was has been called the "firstpsychedelicboutique in the 'Swinging London' in the 1960s. They decorated the shop with red Art Nouveaux lettering on a black background. Granny Takes a Trip marked the beginning of Hippy style. The shop sold clothes for men and women, some vintage, some new. Granny's became a Mecca for the pop world. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals and the Pink Floyd were all customers.

In the Summer of 1967, everything was changing in the fashion world: Long hair, beads, beards and kaftans. Flower power was in the air. The look was psychedelic swirls and paisley patterns. Full on Flower Power was short lived, but its influence was long lasting, for example in Roberto Cavalli but in a chic and exquisite style.

Many things influenced fashion in the 1960s. Social mobility, daring fashion photography, easier travel abroad, the Vietnam war, new music of the Beatles and their much copied hairstyles, retro military and ethnic clothes, musicals, pop art and film all played a part.

Besides of these social, cultural, economic and political changes of the 60's which influenced the fashion worls in a decisive way, we must say that many of the fashions of the 1960s existed because of the fabrics. They introduced new fabric properties and when synthetics were mixed with natural fibres there was improved performance in wear. Some had been invented years earlier in the 1930s and 1940s, but it was only in the 60s that huge production plants for synthetic fibres sprang up globally.